Southeast Asian stocks tumbled on Friday in line with broader Asian peers, after the region's largest trading partner, China, reported a sharper-than-expected fall in exports in February, reigniting concerns of a global slowdown. Exports from Beijing in February fell 20.7 percent from a year earlier - the largest decline in three years - compared to forecasts of a 4.8 percent drop, pointing to a further cooling in the economy despite a spate of support measures.
The data comes just a day after the European Central Bank slashed its growth forecasts, deferring rate hikes until 2020 and offering banks a new round of cheap loans, as it cautioned that the economy was in "a period of continued weakness and pervasive uncertainty".
In Southeast Asia, the Singapore index fell for a third session in four, dropping 1 percent to a more than one-month low with broad-based losses.
The country's largest lender DBS Group Holdings Ltd and Singapore Telecommunications Ltd lost 1 percent each. The Singapore benchmark index posted a 0.8 percent fall for the week. Philippine stocks snapped their two-day rally, declining 1.1 percent, hurt by weakness in industrial and financial sectors.
SM Investments Corp and Bank of the Philippine Islands were among the biggest drags on the benchmark index, shedding 3 and 2.2 percent, respectively. However, the Philippine stock index, which was the worst performer in the region last week, recorded a weekly gain of 2 percent. Indonesian shares fell 1.2 percent to a one-and-a-half-month low as trading resumed after a holiday on Thursday, with financial and consumer stocks taking the biggest hit.
An index of the country's 45 most liquid stocks declined 1.4 percent. Vietnam stocks, which have outperformed their regional peers by a vast margin this year, closed 0.9 percent lower on Friday.